Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Healthcare and A-REITs sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.85%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bendigo And Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX:BEN), which rose 7.96% or 0.79 points to trade at 10.71 at the close. Meanwhile, Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) added 5.37% or 0.06 points to end at 1.08 and Graincorp Ltd (ASX:GNC) was up 4.30% or 0.35 points to 8.49 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN), which fell 6.31% or 0.19 points to trade at 2.82 at the close. Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO) declined 5.02% or 6.40 points to end at 121.14 and Reece Ltd (ASX:REH) was down 4.61% or 1.26 points to 26.07.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 688 to 477 and 446 ended unchanged.
Shares in Bendigo And Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX:BEN) rose to 52-week highs; rising 7.96% or 0.79 to 10.71.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.28% to 11.43.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.16% or 3.70 to $2,389.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.45% or 0.36 to hit $79.59 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.64% or 0.53 to trade at $83.80 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.06% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.14% to 103.91.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 104.46.